Study eyes student evaluation evolution
While provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) testing has its supporters and detractors, studies show its merit in First Nations communities falls short in defining culturally appropriate approaches to student assessment.
In order to reconceptualize these assessments, University of Western Ontario education professor Rebecca Coulter received almost $250,000 through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Aboriginal Research Pilot Program to lead a three-year study. The study was developed by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal scholars working together to respond to requests from the Indigenous Education Coalition, an equal partner in the study, as well as First Nations school administrators and boards of education members.
“It’s really challenging for non-Aboriginal scholars like myself who have been trained in and adhere to the kind of rational and empirical model that we learn,” she says. “I have to do a lot of listening because I have an important role to play. What we’re trying to do is rethink what educational assessment might look like in a way that is culturally appropriate for First Nation students.”
The research will involve elders, parents, teachers, community members and community-based scholars working alongside an interdisciplinary team of academics, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal.
Coulter says First Nation schools wishing to measure the success and achievements of their students reluctantly turned to the standardized tests used in provincial schools systems. These tests have proven a divisive influence in communities as significant concerns about the suitability of the tests have been raised.
“In order to restore meaningful jurisdiction in education, culturally appropriate student assessment must be in place,” she says. “This research project will make an important, practical and concrete contribution to that goal.”
Coulter will draw on traditional Aboriginal knowledge of learning/teaching relationships and child development to prepare assessment strategies reflecting the needs of First Nations communities in southwestern Ontario. These strategies will be applicable for use in neighbouring provincial schools that enroll First Nations students.
This structural context will ensure the full participation of Aboriginal communities as well as experienced and novice Aboriginal scholars in the research process.
“The over-all goal of the research is to produce usable, culturally appropriate assessment tools that will provide educators, parents and communities with full and fair information about the progress of their students in all domains – mind, heart, body and spirit,” says Coulter. “The tools will offer a variety of approaches to authentic and holistic assessment and provide guidance to allow communities to adapt the tools to make them community specific.”
She adds, to some degree, the research project will be a “sharing of knowledge and learning across cultures” in way that could even help non-Aboriginal districts improve their strategies.
Coulter, who will partner with fellow researchers Bruce Stonefish (Indigenous Education Coalition), Western professors Jason Brown, Brent Debassige and Jerry White, and three PhD students, and will work with three Anishnaabe communities in southwestern Ontario over a three-year period to.
A Traditional Knowledge Advisory Council, bringing together six elders, healers, counsellors and cultural teachers, will advise the research team on a regular basis and guide them on the learning path.
“The very nature of the research itself – with its focus on traditional knowledge, learning and assessment – will enhance the capacity of the social sciences and education communities to develop a deep and grounded understanding of Aboriginal knowledge and traditions and move those learnings into their disciplines and university settings,” Coulter says.
In addition to Coulter, Western received funding for two additional studies through the program. Kinesiology professor Michael Heine has received almost $23,000 for a one-year study on the Teetl’it Gwich’in land use history, while graduate chair in Occupational Therapy Debbie Laliberte Rudman received $25,000 for a one-year study looking at First Nations youth and their visions of education and work success.